No sympathy for U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan

To the editor:

Our son, Spc. Brian Kelly, has been serving our country in Afghanistan for the past 11 months, 1 week and 2 days. He owns a mobile home in Cortland, which is run by Cortland MHC LLC, and he will be returning from duty at the end of July.

While he is away, his mother and I make three trips a week to Cortland to pick up his mail, pay his bills and take care of his home. We make sure the pipes haven’t frozen on a cold winter day, and we take care of his small lawn meticulously. Park management is fully aware that Brian is away on tour as we have had to have numerous conversations with them about why his mother’s name is the signature on his $380-per-month lot rent checks. We have given them our phone number, yet they continue to paste notes on his door notifying him that he needs to spray for dandelions, repaint the shed, cut the grass, etc.

I can understand their desire to keep their park looking nice, but Monday just topped them all. We drove by his home on Saturday and the lawn still looked good from being cut five days before. I went there on Monday after work to cut it again only to find yet another note on the door that read “Mow Lawn, trim around house … complete by 6-30-09 – if not complete Cort will complete + bill $100.” One hundred dollars for 15 minutes of work on a lawn that was cut one week prior. One hundred dollars and one-day notice to a tenant that cannot read the note because he is thousands of miles away serving his country.

Thank goodness we got it with hours to spare. Since Cortland MHC LLC can’t give their soldier tenant the courtesy of following the instructions provided to them to contact his parents with a phone call, I felt compelled to write this. We pray for our son’s safe return to U.S. soil, as well as all of our young soldiers fighting this war. But more importantly now, we pray for his safe return home so he can make sure his grass is properly cut to the high, timely standards of Cortland MHC LLC.  
 
Barb and Ken Reinert
Sycamore